In court documents filed last week, a sketchy tale surfaced suggesting that someone wanted Franklin, the former Pentagon analyst who had agreed to testify against two pro-Israel activists on charges of espionage, dead.

In a Tuesday, June 30 interview, Franklin and his attorney Plato Cacheris, the famed criminal defense lawyer, elaborated on the shadowy incident.

"Somebody approached Larry and suggested it would be good if Larry could disappear and fake a suicide," Cacheris said, "and this person would assist him in doing that."

Franklin didn't take it that way: It was more like a page out of The Sopranos, which would end with him disappearing -- forever.

"Larry listened to him and called me," Cacheris continued: "And I said, 'You've got to report this to the Bureau.'"